PORT LUDLOW – Navy Region Northwest’s new commander, Rear Adm. James A. Symonds, addressed about 115 people on Sunday as the key speaker at the fourth annual Veterans Day observance at the Beach Club in Port Ludlow.
“It’s an awesome and a very difficult thing to consider what America’s sons and daughters have done to preserve our freedom,” said Symonds, who took command of Navy Region Northwest on July 11.
The command includes Naval Base Kitsap and Naval Magazine Indian Island, as well as bases throughout Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Idaho.
Symonds did his research before addressing the audience, and included some war stories in his speech referring to some members of the audience.
One of those stories was of Russ Reed, 84, of Port Ludlow and Bill Whitney, 85, of Coyle.
Both men were Army prisoners of war during World War II in Poland and were transported to Germany.
Although Veterans Day tends to inspire memories from that difficult time, the experience is never absent from either man’s mind.
“Anything that happened under those conditions you remember,” said Whitney.
Reed said he recalls cooking up mouse soup to sustain himself.
“I was better off,” said Whitney, as the two men stood side-by-side after Sunday’s ceremony recalling their war stories. “We made cat soup.”
April 29, 1945, was the fateful day when the two men were rescued by Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army.
Symonds, 54, shifted gears to the present in his speech Sunday.
He said current-day soldiers understand the importance of what they are doing abroad.
“The young people who are fighting the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq get it,” Symonds said.
“We owe them our best efforts to forge a good future for this country.”
He said the Navy’s motto is “fleet, fight and family.”
“The Navy understands this triad is the core of our success for the past and the future,” Symonds said.
During a question and answer portion of Symonds’ talk, an audience member asked if recruiting young people for armed forces is difficult.
“It is something that the Navy is concerned about in the coming years,” he said, adding that 70 percent of high school graduates in the country are deemed ineligible for service due to various physical and mental reasons.
“We battle mightily for that other 30 percent.”
Another person asked how the troops in Iraq are affected by political posturing against the war and vocal opposition.
“My sense is the folks on the ground are too busy to have that affect them in a material way,” Symonds said.
At the end of his talk, a former Army soldier, Larry MacDuff of Port Ludlow, presented Symonds with a shirt with the Navy tartan.
As a new commander of Navy Region Northwest, Symonds said in an interview, he will be getting out and talking to community groups in the near future.
“I view as my challenge to make sure the Navy’s profile in the community is high,” Symonds said.
He said the importance of Navy Region Northwest and Naval Magazine Indian Island will continue to increase into the future
